Natural Cystitis Remedies for Cats

Dec 04, 2016

Cystitis is a miserable condition for cats to endure, and painful for their owners to watch. Fortunately, natural treatments for cystitis work often bring swift healing to cats and relief to their owners!

What is Cystitis in Cats?

Cystitis is an inflammation of the bladder. Often the cause is unknown. Cats with cystitis will have trouble urinating. They may make many frequent attempts to use the little box with little to no success. They may urinate outside of the litter box in places that are inconvenient - carpets, beds, counter tops and bathtubs. A cat with cystitis may appear to be in pain. Their appetite and behavior may be affected and their abdomen may seem bloated and tender.

Cystitis is not the same thing as a urinary tract infection in cats, though the symptoms may be quite similar. Many of the remedies that work for a bladder infection in a cat work for feline cystitis as well.

What Natural Treatments Can I Use for My Cat's Cystitis?

Apple Cider Vinegar

Apple cider vinegar has been used for generations for bladder health in animals and people. It can be used daily to keep the bladder healthy and will often quickly resolve bladder inflammation. You can read more about apple cider vinegar for cystitis here.

Coconut Oil

Coconut Oil is a highly nutritious and healing food that is good for pets as well as their owners. You can put a pea sized amount onto your cat's paw for him to lick off. You can put the same amount right into his mouth or mix it into his food. It is a mild tasting oil and easy to disguise in food. Coconut oil is an anti-inflammatory oil.

Herbs

Turmeric

Turmeric is an excellent natural anti-inflammatory. 1/8-1/4 teaspoon can be added to a cat's food once or twice a day. Powdered turmeric can be found in the spice section of your local grocery store or health food store.

Parsley

Parsley is renowned for its healing effect to the bladder. Parsley tea can be given instead of water if your cat likes it. Pour once cup of boiling water over 1 teaspoon of parsley. Steep 15 minutes. Strain out the herbs. If you cat does not like the tea, a quarter teaspoon of ground parsley can be added to food.

Corn Silk

Corn silk tincture works well for bladder problems. It is a mild tasting tincture that can be mixed into food or given by syringe. Add 1/4 teaspoon of corn silk tincture to 3/4 teaspoon of water and give orally twice a day.

Dietary Changes for Cats with Cystitis

Plenty of water is critical to the health of the bladder of your cat. You may need to get creative to ensure that your cat stays well hydrated. If your cat's diet is primarily dry cat food, your cat is almost certainly not getting enough fluids to effectively flush the bladder. Changing to wet cat food or a combination of wet and dry cat food will help to increase the amount of water your cat gets. You will need to do some trial and error to figure out the best way to encourage your cat to drink more fluids.

Keep clean, fresh water available at all times.

Try bottled water.

Try cold water.

Make bone broth for your cat to drink. Cats love chicken bone broth (Boil chicken bones in water for several hours. Strain. Freeze the broth in ice cube trays or small containers.) You may be able to just add a few cubes each day to your cat's water bowl. The water bowl will need to be washed daily to make sure it is clean, especially if you are putting anything in the bowl other than water.

Add 1/2 teaspoon of raw apple cider vinegar to your cat's water bowl and see if your cat likes the taste. Some animals do. If your cat does like this and drinks more, the apple cider vinegar will be an added bonus to his bladder health.

As aforementioned, dry cat food will not ensure proper hydration for your cat. Dry cat food also contains fillers, grains, food colors, and other chemicals that are working against cat health and not for it.

Cranberry Juice

My cat didn't urinate all day. It has been sparse for a few days but I am concerned. Has anyone found a remedy for not urinating? I ordered kidney support but who knows if will help and how long it will take to get.

Last night I gave my little one cranberry juice again at 2:30 am ( two eye droppers full ) and this morning at 7:30 three to 4 eye droppers full. Since starting the juice yesterday evening, she has had almost two teaspoons full of cranberry juice (I had to administer it through the side of her mouth- Hold her head still with one hand - hold eye dropper with the other).

Secondly, I had been rubbing her inside ear with mag oil also (I had stopped while she wasn't urinating because I thought it could be the problem and also stopped the borax solution - three 1/4 tsp 3 xs per day) on the inside of the ears. (I administered it there because she can't lick it off and get it through the mouth- transdermal magnesium avoids diarea sp?) So I administered the mag oil (magnesium chloride) also at 2:30 on her ears. When there still was no urination at 7:30 (last night at 8:45 was the last) I began to research dandelion tea and had just about ruled it out because it says not to use it if there is no urination.

Good News: An hour after the 7:30 cranberry dose (which was almost double the 2:30 dose) I got up to check her box and saw a dark coin sized dark spot and so I checked and it was a significant amount under the surface (I use silicon crystal as litter which absorbs the urine).

She was hungry and gave her some canned sardines with only one quarter tsp of borax solution because she was refusing to eat it with 3 1/4 tsp of the solution. I added a drop of cranberry juice for good measure. She wouldn't eat it. Could the borax be the culprit? Anyway she refused to eat the

So now since she urinated, dandelion is back on the table. Will research dandelion tea some more. I have plenty of free dandelion leaves outside with no threat of chemicals on them).

It is now 9:22 am that I have finished writing this. Will update later

my cat was hungry this morning and all day in fact. I have stopped putting the cranberry juice in an eye dropper and inserting it in her mouth, but I am now putting the eye dropper full on the raw chicken and liver she eats. Give her a little at a time so I can get more juice into her. today she has had at least 2 teaspoons full of cranberry juice on her food. I have continued to put the magnesium oil on the inside of her ears. Three times today.

She has come back to life and urinated a second time about 6 pm and has started drinking water again.

10pm I gave her two more eye droppers full of cranberry juice on a little raw chicken cut into little pieces and the mag oil on the ears again.

when I started the following she was urinating every 12 to 14 hours and this scared me
I wasn't able to get her to take the nutrients. Would squeeze the eye dropper with the cran, blueberry, honey mix into her mouth and stopped when she spit it up and started again.

tsp of chicken, 1/4 tsp liver all tiny pieces to that added 2 droppers of ACV 50/50 water to see if she would eat- no

she would not eat chicken or liver

she ate grated parmesan cheese

1pm she cleaned what I made at 12:30 all up

1:10 pm more cooked chicken 3 squirts (droppers) of blueberry, cranberry and honey underneath on all sides ( the chicken had been left over from a meal that had seasoning (baked in olive oil ACV salt pepper paprika, possibly garlic OH No! )outside. perhaps that concealed the taste of the liquid.

she gobbled it up

1:25 CHECKED LITTER BOX and she had URINATED!! Significant amount. What did it?

Don't remember WHEN the last time WAS but I was beginning to worry …again.

This little love, Babe, is my only heir! My grand daughter.

She seems okay. She drank about 3/4 cup of water between yesterday and today before I added the 1/4 tsp ACV to two cups water. Don't know if she will drink this ACV water.

4:45

gave same as 12:30 meal

with 1/4 cal mag tablet crushed with knife and sprinkled on top and mixed in- she ate 99.9 % ( my friend says that calcium blocks absorption of phosphorous

5:30

cooked chicken as above

3 droppers, blueberry, cranberry, honey

3 droppers dandelion tea

2 droppers Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV)

she didn't seem to want the above but drank water

she ate the above at some point

6:40

6 eye droppers, blueberry, cranberry, honey

3 droppers dandelion tea

3 droppers Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV)

SHE WENT OUT SIDE AND I WATCHED HER SHE DROPPED OF THE STEP AND SHE GOT LOST UNDER THE PORCH BEHIND THE STACKED WOOD AND WOULDN'T COME OUT.

BY HER INQUISITIVENESS SHE APPEARS TO BE A LITTLE BETTER Finally extracted her and she went inside (more fleas!! Ugh)

7:15 URINATED SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT

I defrosted chopped turkey because it has less phosphorous

gave her 1 heaping tsp raw turkey

8:10 power went out

3:25 am power went on

2 tsp cooked turkey cooked some up

added

4 droppers, blueberry, cranberry, honey

3 droppers dandelion tea

2 droppers Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV)

ate all

3:40 she was still hungry

1 tsp turkey cooked

1 tsp chicken raw

3 droppers, blueberry, cranberry, honey

1/4 tsp borax solution (1tsp borax in liter of water)

sliver of cal mag tablet crushed fine so she won't object

3:45 URINATED pretty good amount

1:25pm July 13,2016,7:15pm and 3:45 am July 14

URINATED 3 TIMES IN 14 HOURS

I say this is a significant improvement because before I got the (nutrients via eye dropper squeezed along side and under her food) cranberry juice (trader Joes), blueberries (organic), raw honey (solid sort of blended in vita mix and strained blueberry pulp because it began to solidify in fridge) 50/50 ACV and water (with a little more water) fresh dandelion tea dandelion leaves (no chemical sprays) cup of water (I believe I explained this earlier) and some boron and magnesium chloride (magnesium oil) she was urinating about every twelve hours

I believe the success so far happened because I got a lot of the above nutrients due to feeding her small amounts to see if she would eat it and then would give her more than one portion and added more of the nutrients also. Sort of sneaking them in. She seems not to object to them now.

Patricia, your success is because of your dedication, knowledge is power and the people who truly care about their animals do this. I have done this all my life and rarely use vets because I hate the chemicals they always shoving into their bodies and making them sick. You can never stop learning any pets that come into your life are truly lucky. Good luck for the future.

July 15 I think she urinated too much while I was out- she only urinated once though- strange

litter box is suddenly filled? 100% silicon litter absorbs the urine and the odor. The crystals turn orange-ish yellow/brownish when filled. Perhaps I had stopped stirring the pot enough while concerned with her urination. I changed the litter a couple of weeks ago. Perhaps the silicon loses its absorbancy after it is dehydrated (something I learned to recycle it). Too much to do.

5:45am july 15 saturday

went shopping for food and left the house 1pm july 14 friday

came home and she had URINATED- and upon examination of the litter the box

it seemed to be filled with much more urine (can tell by the white crystals turning a brownish color). Wasn't paying attention to the litter itself until now.

Received Kidney Support Gold in mail today and

gave it to her without shaking it. OMG!

amount to give- one drop per 2 lbs on cooked chicken portion 1

cranberry, blueberry and honey 4 droppers on raw turkey portion 2

dandelion juice 3 droppers on raw turkey portion 3

7:25 pm tsp raw turkey

chopped dandelion leaves

3 droppers cran, blu, honey juice

3 droppers kidney support because I didn't shake the bottle first time

7:30 cooked chicken and 1/4 tsp borax solution

4:45 am URINATED significant amount

checked water she had consumed 3/4 cup water

5:02 bowel movement may be soft- maybe too much mag in

cal mag tablet

mag chloride on inside of ears

not sure what to do now- that she may be urinating not too often but too much- I only received the commercial product 1pm today and was out till 5:45 so it couldn't be that.

I had given her 500 mgs of L arginine and 2000 mgs vitamin d when she was urinating too much and it stopped the urination and lots of water. Is it back now that I stopped that remedy?

do I stop my home remedies while giving her the kidney support gold?

by the way this product says proprietary formula which means there is no way of telling what is inside the bottle.

concerned about the phosphorous content in protein. Looked up the phosphorous amount in foods and found that sardines have much more than any other meats. Turkey is the least. Magnesium stops the absorption of phosphorous. Too much magnesium internally makes for watery diahrea. Gee this is a balancing act.

How could a doctor know what to give you? They re purpose their black doctor's bag (I grew up when doctors visited with black bags)

drug inventory and use them for what they were not intended. Not a good idea. Is that why the number 3 cause of death is medical malpractice? I can't speak from experience. It is what I read though.

I can't keep up with the recordation of her tiny feedings. Called the turkey people Sheltons and they said that there "may" be GMO in it. So we asked if they give them corn and they do. It is 90% chance that the corn fed to animals is GMO. Stopped the turkey.

I have decided to continue what I have been giving her along with the product I bought (kidney support gold) for a while. Her urination is about every 4 to 6 hours. I am going to change the silicon in the litter box t omorrow and keep tabs to see if she is urinating too much.

I don't know what a strong urine smell is from a bladder infection. So much I don't know.

The good news is that she is gobbling up her food no matter remedy I give with it. I guess because she is hungry.

I bought organic chicken drumsticks and free range chicken liver from a local farm instead of that GMO turkey.

She has much more energy and paces up and down in front of the sink until I feed her.

I pray I get all the fleas with the borax treatment for the rugs. And then off of her.

It has been two years fighting to exterminate them without using poisonous chemicals.

Something has to work. If we only knew what.

I am not sure how to use this site so I keep clicking on reply to my posts for the next post. Is there something I am missing?

You have no idea how thrilled I am when someone actually responds to a post. Thank you all for caring enough to respond.

I had a female cat who died from that condition in June, I wish I had seen your post before, the information you posted might have helped her. But I know it has helped other cats and given great comfort to their caregivers. I felt I had lacked the self confidence to treat animal sickness naturally, now I do not. Thank you

I see that your post is a few months old. I hope that your pet has recovered completely. I just wanted to tell you that my 16 yr. cat had a UTI as well. There was even some blood visible in her urine. I used the Apple Cider Vinegar and in less than an hr. there was a visible improvement. The next day there was no blood at all visible in her urine. I wouldn't let this keep me from taking her to the vet but since it was a weekend and my vet wasn't available, it was a great relief for me to do something that gave her (and me) some relief.

Om's Remedies

In my experience, after caring for many rescue cats , these male cats need homemade food, raw but soaked meat in perox. Solution to prevent tapeworm. They need in addition dandelion tea which they like to slurp either in water and mixed into the food or given by syringe. Best to eliminate dry food. The tea gives them all the needed vitamins and some minerals. Just dig dandelions, wash them well using the entire plant, simmer in water til the plant is totally wilted, add a little more time for the roots. This herb attends to urinary issues, even healing severe kidney problems. In difficult cases you could look into MMS. Part of the urinary problem is often emotional, for example a cat wants to go outdoors but is an indoor cat or other emotional causes.

The dandelion water will have residue at the bottom but it can be poured off. It is an excellent remedy, also for people as I can well attest, especially diabetes. Give for about three weeks at a time and sporadically repeat. I hope all goes well. Keep your money for good food. God's pharmacy is not about extracting large sums, but service to fellow beings. Please stay away from polluted areas when collecting herbs.

You must be logged in to this post! Please sign in:

DISCLAIMER: Our readers offer information and opinions on Earth Clinic, not as a substitute for professional medical prevention, diagnosis, or treatment. Please consult with your physician, pharmacist, or health care provider before taking any home remedies or supplements or following any treatment suggested by anyone on this site. Only your health care provider, personal physician, or pharmacist can provide you with advice on what is safe and effective for your unique needs or diagnose your particular medical history.